'SI cover kid' earns 10th win

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

You really had to see Tim Lincecum, Sports Illustrated cover boy and potential All-Star Game starter, before he pitched Thursday. He plopped his wiry body inside a small wheeled laundry cart, his knees up against his chest, as he chatted with Matt Cain and Barry Zito.

There was no SI cover jinx Thursday for Lincecum, no dirty clothes jinx either, just one of baseball's most exciting young pitchers tamping down one of the majors' most powerful offenses long enough to earn his 10th win.

Lincecum is 10-1 after holding the Cubs to three runs in six innings in an 8-3 Giants victory. He also singled home a run and scored from first on Fred Lewis' triple in a four-run second inning that also featured a Jose Castillo RBI double. Aaron Rowand started two scoring rallies with singles, and slumping Omar Vizquel had two singles, including his first RBI hit since June 6.

"Everybody did something to win the ballgame," manager Bruce Bochy said. "Against a good club like that, that's what you need."

The only question about Lincecum's appearance on the magazine cover (under the headline "The Freak") was what took so long? Lincecum is 17-6 with 272 strikeouts in 42 big-league games.

Lincecum swore he thought little of the magazine spread even as copies floated through the clubhouse before he struck out eight Cubs to raise his 2008 league lead to 122.

"I'm not thinking 'I'm the SI cover kid.' That's the last thing ever in my brain, if it's going through there at all," he said. "All it is is a magazine. It doesn't say what you're going to do on the mound."

Lincecum spotted the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the first inning then blanked Chicago until the sixth. With two on, two out and the Giants leading 4-1, he tried to throw an 0-2 fastball through Bengie Molina's glove and left it over the plate. Mark De Rosa blasted it for a two-run double.

After Keiichi Yabu struck out Cubs home run leader Derrek Lee with two aboard to preserve a 4-3 lead in the seventh, Rich Aurilia hit a pinch three-run homer off Carlos Marmol in the bottom of the inning to seal a symbolically important victory.

It gained the Giants a split in their series against the Cubs, ending a six-series losing streak at home.

Equally important, the Giants remained five games behind first-place Arizona and 3 1/2 games behind second-place Los Angeles in the National League West, which the Giants still believe they can win despite their 38-48 record.

"We're in this thing," Bochy said before the win. "We've just got to get some consistency and get on a roll."

"This division is open to whoever steps up and grabs out and takes it," Rowand said. "Everybody hanging around in the division is full of good pitching. Whoever gets hot there in the second half is going to be the team that takes it."

The Giants have arrived at a critical point in their schedule. After not seeing the Dodgers since the first series of the season, they play each other nine times over the next 30 games, starting today. After three against the Dodgers, the Giants travel to New York and Chicago for six games that take them to the All-Star break.

These games should help general manager Brian Sabean formulate a plan for the trading season, although he has some idea which way he plans to go.

Sabean made two things clear Thursday: The pitching triumvirate of Lincecum, Cain and Jonathan Sanchez will not be dealt, and the Giants will not make any trades solely for short-term gain.

"We want to hold onto as many guys as we can and we're not interested in a rent-a-player," Sabean said. "That direction makes no sense for us in the position we're in right now."

Sabean reiterated what he told The Chronicle last month, that he is not thinking of trading Randy Winn or Bengie Molina, who are signed through 2009, but if he can place a pending free agent such as Ray Durham, Vizquel or Aurilia on a contender, he might do it.

Aurilia showed his worth with his third career pinch homer, which came after Bochy won a huge gamble. With Matt Murton on third base and two outs in the seventh, Bochy had Yabu pitch to Lee even though Aramis Ramirez, the next hitter, was hitless in his 20 previous at-bats and was playing his first game since he left the team Sunday for personal reasons.

"You hate putting a runner on base with a one-run lead. The last thing you want to do is wake up Ramirez. He might be struggling, but he's dangerous with guys on base, a big RBI guy."

Yabu threw Lee three pitches - "curveball, curveball, split," he said - for strike one, strike two and strike three. With that, Lincecum's 10th win was in the bag. It ended with perfect innings from a pair of rookies, Sergio Romo in the eighth (Tyler Walker had a tight quadriceps) and Osiris Matos, making his big-league debut, in the ninth.